Injuries sustained while trying to get up from an allegedly defective chair; Ordinary negligence; Alleged conduct of a defendant’s employee; Hearsay; Present-sense-impression exception (MRE 803(1)); Premises liability; Notice

The court held that the hearsay statement on which plaintiff relied “was not a present sense impression under MRE 803(1)[,]” and absent this evidence, his ordinary negligence claim failed. Further, as his “evidence was insufficient to establish a question of fact whether defendant had notice of the dangerous condition that caused plaintiff’s injury,” his premises liability claim was also properly dismissed. The case arose from injuries he “sustained while trying to get up from an allegedly defective chair on defendant’s premises” (a hospital). As to his ordinary negligence claim, he contended “that defendant was negligent because its employee directed plaintiff to sit in a chair that the employee knew was defective. Plaintiff supported this theory by testifying that the nurse working in the lab where his blood was drawn directed him to sit in the swivel chair that broke and caused his” injuries. Defendant asserted “this evidence could not sustain plaintiff’s claim because it was inadmissible hearsay.” Plaintiff did not dispute that the nurse’s statement was hearsay but argued it was admissible under MRE 803(1). However, the court found that plaintiff’s “testimony that the nurse told him to sit in a chair clearly does not fall within this exception because the nurse’s statement was not describing or explaining an event or condition ‘while or immediately after [the nurse] perceived it.’ MRE 803(1). The nurse made this statement before plaintiff fell, and the statement was not describing or explaining anything.” As to his premises liability claim, the court concluded that the “nurse saying that ‘something was wrong with the chair’ after plaintiff fell out of the chair does not demonstrate that the nurse (or anyone else) knew that the chair was defective before plaintiff fell; it instead suggests only that the nurse believed that ‘something was wrong with the chair’ after plaintiff fell. Plaintiff did not testify that the nurse said anything that would tend to establish that defendant had actual or constructive notice of the defective chair before plaintiff’s fall.” Affirmed.